If you have been awarded a Stamps Scholarship by UConn, you have access to up to $12,000 in funds that may be used for enrichment activities.

Eligible Expenses

The following activities are eligible to be funded by the Stamps Enrichment fund:

• Study Abroad You may use the Enrichment Award funds for travel and room and board, but not for tuition or program fees. Experiential Global Learning (EGL) provides estimates that break down the costs of travel, room, and board, which you can use when creating your budget.
• Unpaid Internship You may use award funds to cover room and board (away from home or school) and other expenses (travel to and from your work location, for example) incurred during the internship. You may also use the enrichment award for room and board for a low paying internship, but only if the expenses exceed the total amount of the salary.
• Research You may use award funds to cover costs associated with an independent research project (e.g. supplies and/or consumables in the laboratory, printing and copying, etc.) and other expenses (travel, for example) incurred during the research experience. If the research will take place over the summer and you will be living away from home, then you may also include room and board expenses. The expenses must be specific to your project and must be consumed during your research. Requests for funds for laptops, processors, lab equipment, etc., will not be approved.
• Professional Development You may use award funds to conduct fieldwork, travel for research purposes, or to attend pre-professional or academic conferences.  Pre-professional, professional, and academic conferences are the most common professional development activities supported by these funds.
• Community Service You may use the award to cover costs associated with approved volunteer or UConn-sponsored service activities. These activities are usually immersive in nature, which includes most service-orientated alternative spring break programs but does not generally cover volunteer work associated with local after school programs (unless those activities are directly related to your degree program or professional aspirations).

Ineligible Expenses

The following costs are not eligible to be funded through the Stamps Scholars Enrichment fund:

• UConn fee bill balances, including tuition, fees, parking tickets, pharmacy charges, etc., or other items such as course textbooks, computers/tablets, lab fees, program costs and course materials.
• Activities that start after you have graduated, even if you incur expenses related to this activity before your degree is conferred.
• Activities associated with classes for which you are receiving academic credit and which are requirements for your degree (e.g., costs associated with senior design projects in the School of Engineering).
• Test Fees or other costs associated with preparation for tests are not allowed if the exams are required for graduate or professional school admission or professional licensure (e.g., MCAT, LSAT, GRE, and actuarial exams).
• Tuition or other program fees that approximate tuition at other educational institutions or agencies. Exceptions: You may request funding to offset costs of Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) certification programs if they do not carry academic credit (from UConn or another institution). Please note that these exceptions may be rescinded in the future.
• Publishing Fees charged by some journals.
• Compensation in the form of salary, wages, or stipends.

Application Process

We recommend you assemble the following materials before you start work on the application form.

1. Verification that you will be engaging in the activity. This could be a letter of acceptance to a study abroad, volunteer or service program, a letter of offer for an internship, a letter from a research mentor, or conference registration confirmation.
2. Documentation that clearly indicates the expenses listed in your budget. Types of documentation could include mileage and per diem (per day) calculations for meals (current rates are available at travel.uconn.edu), receipts, conference and hotel booking confirmations, quotes for travel arrangements, a finances/budget sheet from the proposed study abroad/public service program, rental contracts, etc. Screenshots saved as PDFs will serve this purpose.
3. Budget The next step is to complete the budget sheet in which you list all the costs associated with your activity.

Once you have assembled your application materials, then you are ready to complete the application. Please do so at least three weeks before your activity begins!

Special instructions if you plan to use funds for international travel:
Your safety is important to us. We will deny grant requests for countries with a Level 3 or 4 Travel Advisory in force, and reserve the right to deny requests for countries with a public announcement in force. Nor will we approve requests to travel to destinations in which UConn’s Office of Experiential Global Learning has suspended or ended its programming for safety reasons. Current travel advisories are available at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html 
Travel Advisories are issued when conditions that make a country dangerous or unstable lead the State Department to recommend that Americans avoid or consider the risk of travel to that country. A Travel Advisory may also be issued when the U.S. Government’s ability to assist American citizens is constrained due to the closure of an embassy or consulate or because of a drawdown of its staff. If a grant request has been approved, and a subsequent Travel Advisory or public announcement has been issued for the country(ies) to which you are traveling, we may cancel approval of the grant request and ask for a return of the awarded funds.

Additional Considerations:
Your grant may be considered taxable income. Please consult your tax professional to determine whether the payment of this grant is a taxable event. Additional details, and answers to many frequently asked questions, may be found at the following websites: (1) and (2) https://bursar.uconn.edu/resources/1098-t/1098-t-faq.

After Completion of Activity

Within two weeks of the completion of your activity, please submit a reflection form. If you have Stamps Enrichment funds remaining, you will not be able to access them if you have not submitted a reflection for your previous activities.

Current Scholars, if you have questions about this process or want to discuss options or review your plan, please contact kaitlin.heenehan@uconn.edu (UConn Stamps Scholars Program Lead).